Preamble

The term of the preamble ( from Latin praeambulare " go ahead ", "forward stride "; via medieval Latin Praeambulum "Introduction") today refers to a most solemn, written in elevated language statement at the beginning of a document, particularly a Constitution or an international treaty. Thus, the German Basic Law, the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation and the Austrian State Treaty contain a preamble. They are today the presentation of motives, intentions and purposes of their creators and give each " basic consensus " again. In times of work on a European constitution, the mention of a particular religious Bezuges or a " invocatio dei " in the Preamble to the public due to the large number of non - believing citizens, therefore, is highly controversial.

History

The Decalogue of the Old Testament of the Bible already does not begin with the first commandment ( " Thou shalt have no gods before me "), but with the words " I am the Lord thy God! I have freed you out of Egypt ", and thus the liability of the following law is quite theologically justified. This pattern is reversed historically over again. Even the Code of Hammurabi (~ 1700 BC ) recorded a preamble, as the Salic Law (about 510), the Saxon Mirror (about 1224 ), the Golden Bull of Charles IV ( 1356), the embarrassing court order of Charles V. ( 1532), the General Prussian land Law (1794 ), after the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the first constitutions of Virginia (Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776), the United States ( Constitution of 1787 and the Bill of Rights of 1789 ), Poland ( Constitution of May 3, 1791) and France ( Constitution of September 3 1791).

The early international treaties initiated a Vorsprüche: the Rütlischwur the Swiss strains ( 1291 ), the Eternal Peace Country ( 1495 ), the Religious Peace of Augsburg ( 1555), the Peace of Westphalia ( 1648). Even in the private sector, there is a prologue culture: the medieval document included at the beginning of a standardized harangue, which guaranteed the originality of the designated issuer in its design. In particular, the time of the Roman soldier-emperor to 235-305 experienced the literary prologue its heyday as a rhetorical art form, the literary form of the prologue (u ) s, especially in the ancient drama is well known, and so the preamble is part of the standard repertoire of the late and nachneuzeitlichen constitution.

Content served the Gesetzespräambeln propaganda purposes the feudal rulers: In the papal decretals of the official claim connected with the See of Peter was in the foreground, secular absolutist rulers allied themselves in the preambles with spiritual power and brought here in the restorative constitutions of the 19th century their divine right to express dei gratia. In Germany it took the Nazi regime to enforce the ideological fermented preambles of its laws beyond the actual wording of the law also, but probably without significant appreciation in jurisprudence and doctrine.

The Austrian Federal President Thomas Klestil refused under the intergovernmental negotiations in 2000 for the time being, the proposed Cabinet to praise ( especially some FPÖ ministers). As a compromise, the parties agreed for the first time in the Second Austrian Republic, a preamble, which had to be signed virtually " designated " parties. In it, the Federal Government is committed, among others, " to the principles of pluralist democracy and the rule of law, as enshrined in the Austrian constitution ... " Finally, the Cabinet bowl on 4 February 2000 I took on his work. In this case, the preamble had to calm the dubious function to reaffirm the constitutional text as well as people, the media and eventually the world. Accordingly occurred Preamble ' in the memory of the vernacular.

Preambles at the level of European law

European law consists of the treaties of the European Communities / European Union, founded on these secondary sources and the Acts of the Council of Europe. At least among the primary sources is not a text known that did not contain a preamble, in particular the Council of Europe Statute 1949 ( EURAT ), the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 ( ECHR), the Treaty establishing the European Community of Coal and Steel 1952 ( ECSC), the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, 1957 ( EAG) and the Treaty establishing the European Community, 1957 ( TEC ) and the Treaty on European Union 1992 ( TEU) contain extensive Vorsprüche.

Content emphasize the contracts the will of States and peoples to peaceful coexistence based on common values ​​and interests, in the first contracts still much more idealistic and euphoric - EURAT " spiritual and moral values ​​which are the common heritage of the peoples ", the ECHR: " deeper belief in those fundamental freedoms ", ECSC: world peace - as it then the EAG does the preamble is very adapted to the subject of nuclear energy, and finally the EC Treaty, in its objectives, in quite visionary perspective - " the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe [ to ] create "- very much focused on the economic aspects underlying it.

In contrast, builds the EUV, much more generally of a political nature and dominated by the recent fall of the Iron Curtain, back to the style of the early years on, closes his " commitment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law " that to basic social rights, environmental protection and sustainability of, announced citizenship of the Union, monetary union and a common foreign, security and defense policy (CFSP). The notion of a ' European identity ' will use.

A special feature on the Draft Constitutional Treaty of Europe, which has the complete recording of the Charter of Fundamental Rights now has two preambles.

The jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice ( ECJ) pulls the substantive statements of the preambles of the European treaties regularly approach as interpretation guidelines of the article right.